Seth Being Seth

Constantine Papanicolaou's 2011 documentary The Ordinary Skier is a candid biography of Seth Morrison, one of the most decorated skiers of the last decade. The film is a rebuke to the traditional athlete on-location segment, instead humanizing Morrison through his forays into a new world in Chamonix, France, the forefront of ski mountaineering.

With the 2012 Powder Video Awards approaching, Morrison spoke with Powder.com about the film's reception, and why he can't watch the movie himself.

How's your winter going? It's the worst I've seen it since I moved here. At least the resort does a good job of getting what they got going. Other than that, I'm just waiting on Mother Nature.

What are your upcoming plans? I have a block of time here. I'm going to Cham to do some freeskiing just for myself.

How's the film being received? Pretty well. There were different venues, some bars that were stand only and not really appropriate for that movie and others auditoriums. People are psyched on it.

The Ordinary Skier, Trailer No. 1:

I was impressed at how candid and honest you and your family are in the film—was that hard for you? Not really. I don't really care to watch the movie, because I've lived it. It's hard because I'm telling the story all over again from the first time I had a documentary about me.

The whole experience was new and different to me. To do the same routine year after year, going to Alaska and Canada all the time you feel like you know exactly what you're going to be up to each year before plans are even made. To do a Chamonix type trip, to be a total duck and have no idea what it's about, knowing that it's dangerous but not knowing how dangerous until you're actually there. The whole learning experiences of skiing around that place and initially, when you first get there, how to go skiing and how to get to that skiing.

It's frustrating because it's a whole new part of skiing that I've never experienced – it's more just learning new things and made it more fun than what you've been doing all these years.

The Ordinary Skier, Trailer No. 2:

What do you want people to take away from the film? You can make whatever you want out of yourself. If you pursue it in the right manner, you'll be able to accomplish anything. Being in the right place at the right time and doing some of the right things at the right time. I was just lucky, the timing of everything – it was perfect for the path.

Are you feeling any different coming into Powder Awards with you own film? Not really.

What's next? I'm starting to get into filming with TGR. Typically for me I haven't really done any filming in January for at least last eight years or so. Typically after SIA and the X Games that anything really starts. Filming with TGR is the main goal for season—the season's almost over and it just started.